SHIMLA: Young Indian author Prajwal Parajuly, who has earned the sobriquet of "harbinger of resurgence of short stories" in literary circles in South Asian literature and created a sensation in the previous year when he became the youngest Indian author to land an international multi-country two-book deal with a renowned publication in London, is adding a creative warmth in the freezing hills of Shimla, as he gets ready with the third launch of his debut collection of short stories, "The Gurkha's Daughter" in the Queen of Hills on Sunday.
Parajuly, who deliberated his experiences of creative writing at the two-day Shimla literary festival, which began here on Saturday, told TOI, "Readers and writers are present everywhere, be it a big metro or a small town. So why not a place like Shimla for book launch, may be someone gets inspired to write. Smaller towns like Shimla and my home state Sikkim are fertile grounds to re-cultivate the book reading habits and refurbish the creative streak among young minds."
On his second visit to Shimla, Parajuly said, "There is no dearth of talent in smaller places and Shimla has been a repository of creative element, be it drama or writing. The book launch is going to happen at the famed historic Gaiety theatre, which in itself is an epitome of drama." The "Gurkha's Daughter" has a story set in a hill station of Himachal also, in Manali, titled "Let Sleeping Dogs Life," he said. "May be, readers can find something about Shimla in his upcoming novel, which also centres around Nepali speaking people," Parajuly said.
Asked about that the term "Gurkha" has come up as a heavily loaded term with several undertones, he replied, "The book is a fictional writing and I never wrote it with this intention. If, in a way, it is dispelling the myths related to the term and is eradicating the social ills related to it, it is a positive sign. It is good that people are getting to know more about Gurkhas." There is also a place called "Gurkha" existing in Nepal, he added.
After Shimla, the next place on cards for launch is Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), apart from big places like Bangalore and across the globe, including London, Sydney, Johannesburg, Cambridge and Oxford, he said. Speaking about his book of short stories that chronicles the lives of Nepali speaking diaspora across places, Parajuly said, "I chose the topic of Nepali-speaking people as writing about a world which I knew very well and am familiar with was easy."
Asked about the title of the book "The Gurkha's Daughter," he said it has been taken from one of the short stories and was decided after much deliberation. "Earlier, we had decided upon titles like Himalayan Sons, From Himalayas, etc. but the Gurkha title captured the essence of the collection of stories," he said. The response, sales and reviews of the book so far have been phenomenal and the response in Shimla before the launch too has been quite encouraging, he added.
Smaller towns like Shimla can nourish book reading habit: Prajwal Parajuly
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Smaller towns like Shimla can nourish book reading habit: Prajwal Parajuly
